Do You Remember All the Cool Things Your CRM App Can Do?

It seems shocking that sales people wouldn't take advantage of the scheduling features of the CRM applications they use daily, but frequently fully functioned CRM is used as a simple contact manager without additional productivity features coming into use. That's a waste of investment -- and a loss of increased sales productivity.

If you mention a certain brand of lower-priced, assemble-it-yourself furniture of
Scandinavian heritage, you stand a pretty good chance of getting a response that
dwells at some length on how hard it is to put it together. I've never felt that way
-- in reality, I actually like putting stuff together. Thus, I am often summoned by
friends when they're flummoxed by an item of furniture that boasts an umlaut in its
name.

It's not that I'm good at it -- I've just learned to follow the directions. Part of this is to
stick to the sequence laid out in the instructions. Go from step A to step B, and you'll
be fine. Jump from A to D, and things will go awry. And, once you've finished the
steps in the proper sequence, your bookshelf is done (generally).

Is It Done Yet?

If only CRM were as simple. CRM is never really finished. During the process of
getting started, there are some straightforward steps every business must take to
get a system in place; then, frequently, features are brought into play that address
pain points.

That's the way it should work -- but it shouldn't stop there. As new pain points are
identified -- and new opportunities are discovered -- use of CRM features should
expand. Unfortunately, though, CRM is often treated like an IT project, not as a business
project. When that happens, features that weren't front-of-mind during the
implementation phase have a hard time making it off the back burner. That's a
wasted investment.

Although features of all types go unused, there are some that are so basic that they
should be called out. If you aren't using these features you should be -- but don't feel
bad, because many CRM users aren't.

1. Reporting on your own CRM usage

Although you buy CRM in part to understand and analyze data, very few customers
take the time to quantify how their own CRM system is used -- even though most
CRM applications allow you to analyze the usage of the application, understand
who's using it, how much time is spent with it, and the number of reports you run
during specified periods of time.

That insight is incredibly useful -- it tells you how well CRM is being adopted by the
workforce and can identify areas within the business where adoption is failing. It
can also indicate which features of CRM are being used and for what functions.

Typically, understanding of how the CRM application is being used and what could
be done to make it better comes through anecdotal evidence -- a complaint from
sales, an assertion from a sales manager, or a pronouncement from IT. Instead of
basing decisions on anecdotes -- up to and including a decision to replace the CRM
application -- it's a smarter bet to look at the usage data and get a picture of what's
really going on.

2. Understanding Workflow

This is often one of the selling points of a CRM system, but when it comes to actually
using it, many organizations have yet to get into the -- er, flow.

Workflow involves the standardization of processes; it's a visual way to understand
how activities -- both from the business and from the customer -- move through
selling, service or marketing activities.

Workflow allows you to establish this
movement as a prompted part of the way a business works. For example, in
an insurance company, the workflow might be constructed so that an inside
salesperson would be required to look at a prospect's social profile and build
suggested quotes before picking up the phone and talking to the customer.

In
essence, workflow enforces the use of technology tools -- and helps derive the
maximum return on investment from them.

The problem here is that setting up workflow properly means you have to first
understand your business's process. That's not a trivial thing -- it involves real
thought and work that may not seem core to your business.

It also requires that you keep your eye on the workflow ball as CRM is rolled out.
The usual approach is to roll out workflow a little here and a little there; that's
useful in addressing pain points but it misses the bigger opportunity to link all the
company's processes in a coherent and repeatable manner.

3. Schedules, Calendars and Meetings

It seems shocking that sales people wouldn't take advantage of the scheduling
features of the CRM applications they use daily, but frequently fully functioned CRM
is used as a simple contact manager without additional productivity features coming
into use. That's a waste of investment -- and a loss of increased sales productivity.

This stems from a couple of things. First, users need to be trained in how to use
these aspects of their CRM applications; they should not be expected to realize
the valued of these features through osmosis.

They need to be taught to use these
features, to sync their Outlook calendars and Gmail accounts, and so on. Second,
managers need to expect users to employ the calendaring and meeting functions
-- not only do they make life easier for the salesperson, but they give managers
increased visibility into what sales people are doing.

So why aren't these features used from the get-go? Because sales people don't
see scheduling as a problem. Before CRM, they were doing reasonably well with
managing their calendars through older, more manual methods. Their shortfall in
productivity was invisible because they had no alternative to compare it with -- but
with CRM in place, that comparison can be made.

It Was There All Along

These are the tip of the iceberg, There are other features that deal with more
specific business needs, and these too should be understood and examined. They
represent arrows in your quiver that you can draw when the need arises.

Not
realizing you have these capabilities is like carrying arrows you don't know how to
shoot: they're dead weight. Remember, you've already paid for them -- and it may come to pass
that you had the right tool to solve a problem but never realized it.

CRM Buyer columnist Chris Bucholtz blogs about CRM at the
CRM Outsiders. He has been a technology journalist for 17 years and has immersed himself in the world of CRM since 2006. When he's not wearing his business and technology geek hat, he's wearing his airplane geek hat; he's written three books on World War II aviation.